January 22, 2013

(Rome) – Italy is summarily returning unaccompanied migrant children and adult asylum seekers to Greece, where they face a dysfunctional asylum system and abusive detention conditions, Human Rights Watch said in a report published
today. Stowaways on ferries from Greece, including children as young as
13, are sent back by Italian authorities within hours without adequate
consideration of their particular needs as children or their desire to
apply for asylum.

The 45-page report, “Turned Away: Summary Returns of Unaccompanied
Migrant Children and Adult Asylum Seekers from Italy to Greece,”
documents the failure of Italian border police at the Adriatic ports of
Ancona, Bari, Brindisi, and Venice to screen adequately for people in
need of protection, in violation of Italy’s legal obligations. Human
Rights Watch interviewed 29 children and adults who were summarily
returned to Greece from Italian ports, 20 of them in 2012.

“Every year hundreds of people risk life and limb hiding in or under
trucks and cars on ferries crossing the Adriatic Sea,” said Judith Sunderland,
senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Too often
Italy sends them straight back to Greece despite appalling conditions
and treatment there.”

Placed in the custody of the captains of commercial ferries, adults and
children alike are confined on board ships during the return journey to
Greece in places such as makeshift holding cells or engine rooms and
sometimes denied adequate food.

Back in Greece, unaccompanied children and asylum seekers, like all
migrants, are vulnerable to law enforcement abuse, degrading conditions
of detention, and a hostile environment marked by xenophobic violence,
Human Rights Watch said. Ali M., an Afghan boy who was 15 when he was
returned from Italy to Igoumenitsa, Greece, in March 2012, said Greek
police took him to a detention facility outside the port and detained
him for over two weeks with unrelated adults in squalid conditions
without adequate food.

Italian and international law prohibit the removal of unaccompanied
children without a determination that it is in their best interest. Yet,
Human Rights Watch met with 13 children ages 13 to 17 who had been
summarily returned to Greece. None of them were given access to a
guardian or social services, as required by Italian and international
law.

Although Italian government policy is to give an individual who claims
to be a child the benefit of the doubt, Human Rights Watch research
indicates that this policy is not being followed. Only one of the
children interviewed had any kind of age determination examination, in
his case a wrist x-ray. Ali M., for example, was returned without an age
determination: “I told them I was 15, they didn’t listen. They put me
in the ticket office and then on the boat.”

Best practices require a multi-disciplinary approach to evaluating age
and that any medical testing be non-intrusive. Access to a guardian and
social services and proper age assessments can only be carried out when
children are admitted to the country.

“Most of those we met were Afghan boys fleeing danger, conflict, and poverty,” said Alice Farmer,
children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Italy needs to
take responsibility for providing them the special protection to which
they are entitled as children.”

Sending adult migrants back to Greece without giving them the
opportunity to lodge asylum claims also violates national and
international obligations. While Italy has the right to enforce its
immigration laws, asylum seekers must be allowed to exercise the right
to lodge asylum claims, and no one returned should be exposed to risks
of torture or ill-treatment.

Overwhelming evidence of chronic problems with Greece’s asylum system
and detention conditions has led to landmark European court rulings
barring returns to that country under the Dublin II Regulation, which
generally requires the first EU country of entry to process an asylum
claim. Numerous EU countries have suspended transfers of asylum seekers
to Greece as a result.

Italy has not suspended Dublin transfers to Greece but claims to assess
the risk of rights violations when considering whether to do so. But
its summary returns from the ports contradict this policy.

Most people interviewed said they had not had a chance to express their
desire to apply for asylum, while five said their pleas to do so were
ignored by port police officers. According to Bari border police, only
12 out of almost 900 migrants detected at the port between January 2011
and June 2012 were allowed to remain in Italy.

“Some asylum seekers may not want to apply for asylum in Italy, even if
given the chance, because they are convinced that their prospects for
protection and integration are better in other European countries,”
Sunderland said. “But those who do want to apply for asylum should not
be turned away.”

Nongovernmental organizations with contracts to provide services and
information to migrants detected at the ports do not have systematic
access to them, leaving decisions about who is allowed to remain in
Italy in the hands of border police. None of those interviewed had been
given access to nongovernmental groups or information about their rights
and about applying for asylum. Only seven had been assisted by an
interpreter.

“The whole point of authorizing nongovernmental groups to provide
services at the ports is to ensure that migrants’ rights are respected,”
Sunderland said. “But they can’t do their job if they don’t have access
to all arriving migrants, and those in need are falling through the
cracks.”

The European Court of Human Rights is expected to issue a judgment soon
in the case of Sharife and Others v. Italy and Greece involving the
2009 summary return of 25 adults and 10 children who contend that the
return violated their right to life and to protection against torture or
ill-treatment, and to an effective remedy. The Council of Europe
commissioner for human rights, Nils Muižnieks, and the UN special
rapporteur on the rights of migrants, François Crépeau, have both urged
Italy to refrain from summary returns to Greece.

Human Rights Watch recommended a number of changes in Italy’s procedures, including:

Suspend immediately the summary returns to Greece;

Permit those reaching Italy who claim to be unaccompanied children,
without exception, to stay and benefit from the specific protections
guaranteed under Italian law, pending a properly conducted age
determination;

Properly screen adults to identify those with special vulnerabilities
and those who wish to apply for asylum or otherwise have protection
needs;

Provide full access to all arrivals for authorized nongovernmental
organizations so they can provide legal and humanitarian assistance;

Provide ferry companies with clear guidelines for shipmasters on
humane and safe treatment of stowaways when discovered on board and
during returns to Greece.